Quality or Quantity: What Do the Giants Have with Their Pass Rushers?
“You can never have enough pass rushers.”
Such were the words of former general manager Ernie Accorsi, who drew some criticism when, in the 2006 draft, he added defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka after trading down to No. 32 in the first round with the Steelers to a group that included Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, and Justin Tuck, and defensive tackle Fred Robbins.
The Giants, who enjoyed several productive years of pass-rushing success with those players, are now trying to recreate some of that production with a diverse talent pool that includes holdovers Oshane Ximines and Lorenzo Carter, newcomer Kyler Fackrell, draft picks Carter Coughlin and Cam Brown, the recently re-signed veteran Markus Golden, who led the Giants in sacks last year with 10, and interior lineman Leonard Williams.
On the surface, that would appear to be a lot of guys vying for pass-rushing opportunities where, realistically speaking, the Giants won’t be able to send all of them at any time. But head coach joe Judge views the abundance of pass rushers on the team as a blessing—and not for the reason one might think.
“The thing is, even though we have a lot of guys at maybe the same position, they all have different skill sets,” he said during a video conference call with reporters Wednesday. “So along with that, we have different packages and build in based on who the opponent is that week.
“You know, we talk a lot about doing more on the field. You know, they have a skillset rushing the passer, but they're not exclusively a pass rusher.”
Judge, who has spoken repeatedly about versatile players, has had his staff carefully review each individual's tape to figure out who does what best. Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and his staff then took that information and developed multiple personnel packages for different game situations, so they have a counter move for every possible scenario.
“Even though we have a lot of guys at maybe the same position, they all have different skill sets,” Judge said.
“We talk a lot about doing more on the field. You know, they have a skillset rushing the passer, but they're not exclusively a pass rusher. These are guys who are gonna factor in, alright, in maybe different run-stopping units, different packages to match the offensive personnel. And again, building depth in significant positions is something we have to do.”
As training camp continues to move forward, Judge and the coaches will eventually figure out which players fit in best at which spots, noting that some might shift to inside linebacker.
“We'll see how they can fare the inside backer position as well to build our depth on the roster,” he said. “At this point, we're going to give them a chance to just go ahead and get their feet wet at the outside backer position. We're not limited what we can do. We want to make sure we find out what every player can do well.”
In doing so, it would be a good start for a Giants pass rush that has ranked at or near the bottom of the league for the last several years to finally field a unit capable of getting home with as few rushers as possible.
Judge would like to see as many quarterback disruptions as possible from his linemen.
“I think pressure is one thing you have to think about,” he said. “Would you love to go ahead and have a sack every time? Absolutely. But the ultimate thing is making the quarterback operate faster than they want to and making decisions quicker than they absolutely want to.”
That’s all well and good if forcing the quarterback to move quicker than he wants results in an incompletion, a sack, a fumble, or an interception. But if none of those things happen and quarterbacks continue to get the ball out of their hands before the Giants even have a chance to sniff the backfield, it’s all for naught.
That brings things back to the variety of pass rushers the Giants have and the different possibilities that Graham is cooking up.
“We're never going to cap ourselves on creativity,” Judge vowed. “. That's something that you Pat and his staff are looking for the best way to match our opponents.”
Whether that results in the desired outcome remains to be seen.
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